Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 16 Weather weirdness prevails !

[bookbook]

Hello to everyone !
pull up a garden chair and join in with the trials and tribulations of growing your own , against the odds of weather , pests and diseases.
Previous thread is HERE

Wow @BlueberryDream, those raspberries look lovely!

@bookbook what beautiful flowers!

that's really useful thanks @bookbook

my tassels are definitely v silky still!

Morning all, and what a wonderful morning! Have harvested all of my tomatoes due to blight issues. Sadly I found some of the perfectly unaffected ones begin to ripen and then succumb to blight (off the plant). Thought I'd managed to salvage them . Now it's a waiting game to see how many more are harbouring blight.

Afternoon!

Rookie - I would spread them out as much as possible while you try to ripen them , then any bight may stay just on the original fruit . Good luck with them .
Just a very quick trip to pick raspberries today - it is just so hot . DH had a look at the squashes , and realised this one had detached itself from its branch already - the others two still seem to be growing . Not a bad size - it weighed in at 2.8 kg :)

My crown prince plant seems to have completely died back and suspect the squash would detach itself with the slightest nudge. The courgette plants seem to have second wind though, and lots of new flowers and fruits setting. The forecast looks quite promising so cautiously optimistic i might have a few more to harvest yet. I still have beans in flower too.

Good evening.
Am hoping my courgettes have their first wind tizwozliz - we have had the prat crop since we started gardening.
Lovely few days weeding and sorting beds for winter. All raised beds are now sorted, plus the potato area for next year. Brassica bed needs some attention as cabbage whites see, to get in still.

What do people do with their rhubarb? Mine has not been harvested since late June but has had massive growth again and I thought by now it usually had died down. Do people pick it and put on compost heaps or leave it?

Worst not prat - sorry for the typing!

@RhubarbJellyFizz I thought 'prat crop' was a type of courgette . Needless to say I should really read more

Anyone else have things that are fruiting for a 2nd time? Odd things are happening in my garden 🤣, the runner bean have started to flower again as have the cucamelons, both were pretty rubbish first time around, they seemed to die back and then over the past week have grown back.

I've still got flowers on my beans and have been picking strawberries for the second time.

Afternoon !
had a couple of trips to the plot in the last couple of days .
Yesterday was a quick trip to sort out some bits , and ended up picking a butternut - more by accident , as I was pulling out the leaves from the crown prince from the other day , and pulled this plant up too . Today , I picked all the last little side sprouts from the calabrese ,dug them up - and purple sprouting broccoli is starting too. Picked the last cauliflower in there too . Finished weeding all the brassica cage , so just need to keep that tidy over winter - sprouts are setting .
Checked the courgette left - what a star it has been , one nice sized one , and another 5 or 6 set . Plenty of raspberries too .
Just plodding on now - pulling up spent plants , weeding , manuring for winter .

The butternut squash plants are beginning to die off in one bed but are ok in another. Debating when to pick. Just come back from a week away to find mine has died off too. I find the squashes start pale green with the hint of stripes but mature and ripen to uniform straw colour. If the plant's dying off, it's of no benefit to the fruit, so pick them and leave them on a sunny windowsill for a couple of weeks.

What do people do with their rhubarb? If I'm feeling in tidy mood I put the dead leaves on the compost; otherwise they just get buried (eventually) under the winter mulch.

I've tidied up a little today, so carrots and crown prince harvested and the beds dug over with added comfrey. Need to cat proof them tomorrow.

Tomatoes still ripening steadily but surely and blackberries and raspberries being picked daily.

I got a seed catalogue in the post this week so have been browsing for some new things to try next year. Need to do a stock take of seed packets really.

I just leave my rhubarb.

Evening!
lovely stuff there tiz :)
DH and I went up to the plot today - got the grass cut , picked virtually all the borlotti beans . Found more leeks trying to flower , so dug those up , and brought home more sweetcorn . I think I have just a few left , but mostly ready to be pulled up .
I just leave my rhubarb to die down , and give it a mulch . I do have one to dig up this year to split the crown and move , as it has outgrown the space it is in .

well, another day , another trip to the plot . Dug up the borlotti beans today , as I realised there really weren't many left on after picking . So weeded and dug over that patch , and spread manure . Picked raspberries and flowers .
Picked loads of ripe tomatoes at home too - there are still more to come , but some are starting to rot rather than ripen , but had such a good harvest from them this year- the freezer is bursting with tomato and veg sauces , so I made minestrone soup today for a change :)

We've had great weather the last few days but looks like it is about to change. Picked some small courgettes, beans and tomatoes. I have more courgettes set but doubt they will amount to anything looking at the forecast.

I think I'll pull up the remainder of the tomatoes later this week, the plants are in such a sorry state I'm sure it's of no benefit for the remaining fruit to be on the vine.

And excited to find my black Hungarian chillis do turn red eventually.

Lovely harvest @tizwozliz

Woke to some sad findings today. A fox attacked my greenhouse and all of my beetroots and herbs (which were almost ready) are not torn and all over the floor

Afternoon everyone - hope you are all safe and well.
It has been such bad weather this week - heaving rain , gale force winds , and even a bad case of hail .
gah Rookie , what a vandal , and how annoying .
So only a couple of trips to the plot this week .
Tuesday I went and pulled up all the sweetcorn , and took off the last cobs , picked raspberries .
Then today , I have taken up all the squashes , and have started to weed that bed ready to manure for over winter . I already had 1 crown prince , and a decent size butternut . at home form last week . Then there are these- lots of small butternuts , but 2 really good size crown prince .
Now its mostly weeding and manuring , and picking the winter veg . I still have some sad spring greens to plant , they really need to be out of the plugs and into the ground , but I just haven't had the time . Will see if they do any good come spring :)

Oh Rookie that does not sound good. I'm beginning to put my plot to bed for the winter, well some of the beds. I have managed to give away a lot of raspberries over the last couple of weekends. I think I have just had the last of the beans, tomatoes and sweetcorn. I've still got leeks and courgettes coming. A very strange thing has happened. A couple of years ago I bought some 'patio' fruit trees. The plum tree (I think) was sprouting suckers from the graft. I was waiting to see if they were actually from the graft or a bit higher up. Anyway someone has cut the top down to just above the graft. Grumpy Ron denies all knowledge and I quite believe him, I don't think Nice Dave would have dared to such a thing. It's a bit of a mystery.

Decided it's too cold outside for the tomatoes now, I'll give them a week or so to see if any ripen, then use the rest as green tomatoes.

Unexpected harvest this week - the quince decided to drop its fruits.

Still getting figs, windfall apples, tomatoes at long last, a few beans. Tea tonight was the Crottin de Melusine served warm on a bed of beetroot leaves, along with the beetroot itself (they're so good when just pulled), followed by stewed apples and blackberries - it feels so nice to have a meal where everything except the cheese you've grown yourself.

But overall in the greenhouse it's got to that season where everything's beginning to look a bit manky and you're longing to rip it all out and clear the decks to bring the overwintering stuff in.

What are you doing with the quince @MereDintofPandiculation

We have a japonica/Japanese quince which is laden with fruit this year. I've picked some just for the smell but not sure I'll do anything with them.

Also picked beans and beetroot

Loving everyone's photos! I confess everything is getting to be a bit of a struggle at 31 weeks pregnant but had a good harvest of runner beans on Monday and think my various squashes are ready to come in and harden off in a warm/sunny spot. Have also potted on my cavolo Nero and parsley, chervil, sweet Cicely and winter savoury. We've been having a patio laid, and instead of keeping my herbs in the veg patch at the end of the garden, we're having sleeper beds around the patio so that I can have a mini kitchen garden nearby. Hopefully will be finished tomorrow/Thursday, weather permitting!

@tizwozliz I think that Japanese flowering quince fruit are considered inferior in terms of taste to the other quince, but apparently makes excellent jams and maybe would be nice with other fruit mixed in? I wonder how long they'd last before going mouldy...if so inclined they might look nice sprayed gold or silver and added to a wreath or (pardon the C word) Christmas arrangement?

Sorry to hear about your fluffy vandal @Rookiegardener, we were reasonably lucky despite our fox and squirrel visitors, that they only seemed to fixate on one spot, which variously held two types of patty pan and a courgette throughout the summer, each one then unceremoniously ripped from the ground and shredded.

tizwozliz Marmelada (quince paste) with the flesh of the fruit, quince jelly after boiling up the skins and pips.

Not many quince (summer wasn't warm enough here) so may also use some Japanese quince.

The japanese quince go such a beautiful golden colour that I think it would be a shame to spray them for a Christmas wreath - if you're going to spray them, you might as well use conkers instead.

Do they stay that colour for several months then @MereDintofPandiculation? I've never grown one so wasn't sure what their shelf life was without becoming bruised etc by end of December.